Chemistry
by aurimaedre
Summary: Enjolras and Éponine are lab partners in chemistry only to find out that they might be something more than just study buddies. Fluff


Éponine sighed tiredly and watched as her lab partner's face scrunched up yet again. It was around midnight and they had been trying to muddle their way through the latest chemistry lab report to no avail. It seemed that while Enjolras understood the fine art of a pen and the quick wittedness that came with a well-argued debate, he did not understand the beauty, detail, and art that numbers, chemical equations, mechanism arrows, and electron counting held.

She watched as Enjolras furiously erased a hole in his paper, his brow furrowed in frustration and concentration. She dropped her head into her hands and rubbed her eyes. Letters and electron dots and arrows had started to blur in her mind's eye from staring at it for so long.

"Enjolras, I told you, you can't use a one-sided reaction arrow in this case. It has to be double-sided because the system is in equilibrium."

Enjolras pursed his lips, "It's not like it matters, Éponine. An arrow is just an arrow; the teacher will know what I mean."

She let her hands run into her hair as her head hung lower, "Yes it does, Enjolras and it is one of our professor's pet peeves. He said so when we began learning organic mechanisms. And you have gotten counted off for it on every lab report we have turned in so far. It's a language with rules, similar to French and English. You can't just disregard them because you are frustrated."

Enjolras' eyes closed as he took a deep breath. He got out another blank sheet of paper and looked at her expectantly. "Okay, explain this to me one more time. I promise I will pay attention."

Éponine flipped her lab notebook to where it faced him, her work laid out neatly for him to see. "It is a basic aldol condensation reaction. It is the same as what we learned in lecture last week just with different reagents." She began to walk him through the mechanism, pointing out why different arrows were necessary and what attacked where. Finally, when she reached the last step Enjolras was nodding his head in understanding.

"So… it makes sense now, right?" She wanted verbal confirmation and mentally prepared herself to go over it again or explain in further detail why certain things are so important.

"Yea, I understand it." He proceeded to explain the answer to her in his own words, showing that he really did understand the mechanism. By the end of it Éponine couldn't help but flash him a beaming smile.

"See! I told you, once you follow the rules it all makes sense!" She exclaimed gleefully.

Enjolras gave her a look, the same look he gives Courfeyrac when he starts going off about his latest conquest. "It is still trivial and contrived; all these rules. Not to mention there being four different names for one organic molecule. You have the proper name, the common name, the isomers, and whatever else someone decided to come up with… it's all irritating!"

Éponine slumped back in her chair and sighed, this argument was nothing new. In fact, it seemed to occur every week when they got together to study and complete their lab assignment. Except that today her frustration had finally hit a breaking point, "Why did you take this class then? You don't need it for your degree and getting a chemistry minor doesn't seem like something you would jump for joy at achieving."

Enjolras looked away sheepishly, "It is too beneficial. I want to be an environmental engineer; I need to know these things."

Éponine could practically smell his desperation to change topics, "You would learn all that you needed to know in your environmental classes, you don't need knowledge this in depth."

Enjolras shifted in his seat with a subtle pained expression painted on his face, "Having a chemistry minor makes me more marketable in the job field."

"Enjolras, you are at the top of your classes in your department and you are the most charismatic guy I know. Hell, you could convince a brick wall to move if you put your mind to it. So why this class?" She wasn't going to let him get away with deflecting the truth. He had been complaining about this class all semester and it was obvious he didn't particularly enjoy being in lectures. Labs on the other hand… He had good technique and always had a smile on his face. It was odd.

"Éponine, don't make me answer this. I just wanted to take the class; can we leave it at that and move on?" He asked pleadingly.

"No, we can't. You don't like the material and you are going to stress yourself out unnecessarily for the next test…even with my help! Why take a class you obviously don't want or need?" She asked forcefully.

Enjolras sighed in resignation, "Well… you were taking the class…"

Éponine sat back, shocked, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Enjolras stared at her blankly. She could tell she was missing some vital piece of information but she didn't know what it was and it was starting to infuriate her. "Well?"

"I thought it was rather obvious… I mean, all of our friends figured it out when they heard my class schedule for the semester. Even Marius knew!"

"Obviously I don't. Mind clueing me in?"

Enjolras shifted forward in his seat, leaning over the table so that he was an inch from her face. In a stroke of confidence he said, "I took this class because you were taking this class, Éponine. It seemed like a good way to spend one-on-one time with you. I can never seem to get you away from the others and this was a perfect opportunity."

"Why would you want to spend time with me without the others?" Éponine asked, still confused by his motives.

"Because I like you." He said simply.

Éponine's mouth dropped in shock, surprised that he would feel that way about her. She was just the nerdy science girl of the group. She wasn't drop dead pretty like Cosette or flirtatious and confident like 'Chetta. No, her brand of humor seemed to be the opposite of what everyone liked and her looks weren't awe-inspiring. Never in a million years did she think she could catch the eye of their no-nonsense friend, someone that she had been secretly crushing on since the start of University when she met everyone at Freshman Orientation.

Enjolras smiled as her, seeing the different emotions flicker across her face. When he saw her hopeful expression he couldn't stop himself from closing that inch gap between their lips and kissed her gently. She was unresponsive at first, probably due to shock, but quickly warmed up to him. After a few seconds he had to lean back.

"Sorry, the table was starting to hurt my stomach from leaning so far into it." He said breathlessly.

Éponine giggled. He smiled brightly at hearing that delightful bell-like sound, "You want to go grab some coffee or a late night dinner? Maybe talk a little bit more about this?"

Éponine nodded and began putting up her papers with a smile.


End file.
